Shouldn’t we be practical and focus on our present life instead of worrying about future lives?

Why should we worry about any future life apart from this life, Why can’t we use spiritual guidance to be happy and get respite just in this life ?

For your question , it is a sincere and important question. It is natural for us to feel that we should be practical in our approach to spirituality and this life seems to be most practical and immediate concern for us and therefore, it seems that spirituality should help us to prepare us for this life , rather than create worries about future life. While this is certainly true, at the same time we also have to recognize that spirituality is means to broaden our vision and enhance our wisdom,so that we can see long term rather than just see short term, as most spiritually uninformed people do. Just like a child doesn’t understand long term perspective and so feels studying unnecessary for preparing for future life, for a future life of bright carrier and promising job, similarly , spiritually uninformed people, being spiritually child like, feel that preparing for any future life is unnecessary. However, a mature parent knows that the child anyway is going to grow up and will have a miserable future if he does not prepare for his career by studying now. So similarly, spiritually mature individuals encourage us , do not be short sighted like a child, but to be far sighted and to recognize that we are eternal beings and our life is not going to end with death but is going to continue on, and therefore they recognize us to be pragmatic in the long term sense, by preparing for the future. So there is strong scientific evidence of reincarnation through the recollection of past life memories in children as investigates by Dr Young Stevenson and Dr …… and other scientist by University of Virginia as well as in many other parts of the world and Bhagavad Gita also says very clearly, in the second chapter 27th verse, jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur, dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca, tasmād aparihārye ’rthe, na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi. ﻿for one ﻿ who is born , death is certain and for one who is dead, rebirth is certain. so science and scripture both confirm that we will have life after this life, and therefore it is far sighted intelligence to prepare for it and the most important point from the practical perspective is that preparing for a future life will not distract us from being satisfies in this life , but will enhance our satisfaction in this life. How is that ? Just like when the child starts studying, instead of fooling around and playing, so that he can have a bright carrier int he future, he starts relishing life in a far better way , other than just playing. Once he develops a taste for learning, then he discovers a new joy as a whole universe of wisdom knowledge and information opens for him in his studies. Similarly when we learn to live spiritually, our life becomes purposeful, our relationships becomes joyful, our minds becomes peaceful and our struggles and challenges become meaningful. And in this way , by seeing life from a long time perspective, we gain in the short term, because we don’t get over whelmed by the ups and down of life, just as if we don’t consider the future life, then our vision of life is just like a that of a 100 meter sprint. but when we consider that we are eternal being going through multiple life, then we understand that our life is like a 100m km marathon. So if life was just like 100 m sprint, if we are losers , then we are losers, we have lost for ever, because the tournament is over. But if life is a 100 km sprint, even if we fall back in one lap , we can always make up in future laps and there is always hope for future improvement and success. We see now a days that people getting overwhelmed by routine ups and downs of life, students gets depressed and sometimes suicide because they do not perform well in one exam, one business collapse, one stock market crash, causes people to get heart attacks, or commit suicide, all this is because people do not see life from a long time perspective. and so they take the short term upheavals too seriously, and when we see life from a long time perspective the short term up and down in life does not effect us so much and we can be more purposeful focused and resilient in utilizing our talents for our own good for the service of humanity and for the glorification of God. In this way preparing for future life, helps us to better live this life also , in addition also to creating better future for us in next life.